I have a bunch of 'favorite quotes' on Facebook, I don' think I've ever shared them here before, so here we go... as I add them, I will share them here.

* "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" -- Jesus Christ

* Love should be your guide - I Cor 14

* The way you treat people is the legacy you leave - Signal vs Noise blog

* A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. --Robert A. Heinlein

* A coward alive is worth more than a courageous dead. -- My dad. (I use it within context) ask me about it later.

* One amateur called Noah built the ark, and a whole bunch of professionals built the Titanic.

* "Almost no one comes down here, unless, of course, there's a problem. That's how it is with people - nobody cares how it works as long as it works. I like it down here." - The Matrix Reloaded

* All you need is love - The Beatles

* "Laws, enforced by the sword, control behavior but cannot change hearts." - Pastor Greg Boyd

* "And he who controls the battlefield, controls history." - Metal Gear Solid 4

* "I've learned enough about religion to try staying away from it. That's why, I am constantly searching for and falling in love with the Gospel. I mean, the religious people were the ones who conspired and killed Jesus. ~ Ricardo Gondim"

* "I'd rather be a sinner with integrity than a hypocritical 'saint'" - Ed Boyd

* What do people mean when they say, 'I am not afraid of God because I know He is good'? Have they never been to the dentist? -- C.S. Lewis

I love... I mean LOVE... talking to people that have a different view from my own, yet we are willing to just pick each others' brain and learn to respect the different opinions being laid out on the table by us.

I LOVE talking to people from different backgrounds, specially people from a different era than my own. There's so much to learn from the ones who are older than we are. I don't necessarily mean learning life altering lessons, although I'm sure they are good too, but just learning about them... and trying to understand what makes them... them. A lot of times, I find myself understanding a little bit more about the things in my head because I have the opportunity to learn how things were several years ago... things that affected my grandparents, parents, and anyone else from their eras.

I can't stand small talk, I don't like to talk about 'what I do for living', I don't like talking about the weather, I don't like talking about sports (unless, maybe if it's Formula 1)... I can carry a bit a conversation about technology, and back in the day I'd be getting on anyone's face who didn't use Open Source software.

I think that's part of the problem I have with meeting people and hanging out with people, because we are a 'small talk' society. We talk about things that are totally irrelevant to the development of our character, moral, and relationships amongst ourselves and God... and if one tries to talk about it some of those, the conversation turns into 'I'm right, you are wrong', 'I'm better than you' type of conversation...

It always bring me back to the verses: "And the more I learn, the less I know" from Switchfoot.

I love kids, they bring a smile to my face, but I really really really have absolutely no patience to deal with them when they are misbehaving, specially if they are not my kids, and even more if that kid's parent isn't doing anythhing about it.... It makes me want to give a spanking on the kid and the parents :-)

And for that I apologize... I really need to learn how to control my temper, and use the opportunities I get with spoiled, impolite, attention-seeking kids to teach them something... anything... how to control their own temper, how to walk away from a fight, how not to talk back to an older person, how to share, patience... anything at all... if I don't, what good am I?

This goes for my kids as well.

I finished reading C.S. Lewis' The Great Divorce. It's the work of C.S. Lewis I've got to read. The story is interesting it reaches a level of imagination that I can only admire from a distance due to such depth and creativity.

Interestingly enough, I got to the end of this story a lot like I got to the end of 'The Shack,' I thought they were entertaining works of fictions with a pretty great theme, yet, with plenty of theology that if I were to dissect detail by detail I find plenty of (theology) tings I don't necessarily agree with.

The one thing I have to get used to with his work is mostly his writing style and British background.

I have only made 1 'official' resolution for 2009, although there are at least a few other things I hope do this year.

I am hitch-hiking on my wife's diet, so I hope to lose some weight, and I really hope my wife will stay on the diet... I will be her collateral damage, a good one.

I've been reading some during this break, and I've been really surprised to how well I've been doing...usually when I try to read, after 10 mins I am falling asleep :-) It hasn't happened yet, lets see how far I can go.

I need to take the GRE in February, not a resolution, I really have to now since it has become part of my 'professional development' at work...take GRE in Feb, and see if I get accepted to Comp. Eng. program at NCSU in the Fall.

After 18 months in NC, I think my wife and I have come to a somehwat quiet understanding that we are going to the True North Church in Garner... I am starting to look into small groups and officially joining the Church.

Now, for my only resolution for 2009, what I need is: DEPENDENCY. For this new year, I just want to depend on Christ, I don't want to do anything on my own anymore. I don't want to depend on my education for anything, I don't want to depend on my virtues, nor my vices... I don't want to depend on my knowledge not even my common sense... I don't want to depend on my youth (whatever is left of it), and I don't want too depend on this economy either...

I want to depend on Christ, and Christ alone.

Did I mentioned I already failed on my 2009 resolution? But I am not giving up... His grace is there staring me in the face, every time I fail.

As I try to finish reading The Early Christians in their own words, I've stumbled across a very interesting text called Didache. The reason I find it so interesting is because it seems to address quite a few church traditions that I've seen, but never really was able to map it directly to the Bible. The history of the text seems to be heavily associated with the Catholic church, but reading through it, I can see a lot of guidelines used in a lot of other churches as well.

I have to confess that the more I read about Church History, the more fascinated I become with it. It makes me wonder how many agressive and non-agressive wars have been fought because of disagreements on such traditions and rituals, when in the end, it all seems like an evil influence from the devil himself to get us all distracted from the only thing that truly matters: To love God with all your heart, and to love your neighbor as yourself.

Give 'The Didache' a read, it's very interesting.

I read an entire book in one day... I've never done that ever before in my life :-) The book was The Shack by William P. Young.

The book was a great read, interesting, and full of imageries... I liked it a lot. I don't necessarily agree with some of the theology in the book, but I don't really think that was the point of the book. The theme of the book was what spoke to me the most. I guess, if I were to summarize it, I'd say the theme of the book is:

God is 'specially fond of' me and you.

And that, I don't think there is any theology against it.

I don't really cry that often... no, I do not subscribe to the school of tought that man shouldn't cry... I think crying is healthy, and liberating. To be able to decode a feeling inside of you into a good cry, may it be a cry of pain, sadness or joy is something touching, authentic and sometimes hard to do.

My tears today were tears of joy, and of inspiration, and a bit of fear. I got the book Letters from a Skeptic for Christmas, and once I started reading it, I pretty much was not able to put the book down. I don't I have ever read an entire book in only 2 days... that in itself is a pretty nice personal accomplishment.

The book is authored by Dr. Greg Boyd (who also authored another great book I've read called 'The Myth of a Christian Nation) and his dad Ed Boyd. The book is basically a collection of letters between father and son along a period of 2 years where the father asks all sorts of questions about the truth of Christianity, the Bible and God... Most of the questions the father asks his son, in one way or another have been questions of mine, and I won't say that the book answer all these questions to my satisfication, but it definietly helps one come to the conclusion that so many of our questions, doubts and disagreements in issues related to the Bible are mostly pointless when we take in consideration that Christianity is not a religion, not an institution, but a personal relationship with Jesus Christ who is the son of a personal God who loves us unconditionally.

It's a beautiful, inspiring book... and I got to learn a bit of theology and apologetics from it as well, even though I am sure that Greg Boyd's theology isn't welcomed by a lot of Christians that I know... but that isn't really my problem, is it? :-)

I hope the 3 or 4 of you who actually read my blog may get the chance to read this book, even if you are a total skeptic like Ed Boyd was throughout most of his life, and I hope all of you have a great and blessed New Year.

Peace.

My wife got me this, and I laughed so hard...